Jennifer L. Bengston Cook, a 56-year-old resident of Greer, South Carolina, has been sentenced to three years in federal prison after pleading guilty to wire fraud. She is also required to pay restitution amounting to $2.2 million.
Court statements revealed that Cook worked as a part-time bookkeeper for over ten years at a small business located in Duncan. During her tenure, she illicitly wrote checks from the company's bank accounts to herself and deposited them into her personal account without authorization. To conceal these actions, she marked the checks as void in the business ledger and manipulated records in QuickBooks by listing them as void or falsely attributing them to other employees or vendors. In some cases, Cook labeled the memo line of checks with payroll information or reimbursement claims and even issued herself multiple payroll checks for identical periods. Additionally, she used company funds to settle her personal credit card bills.
The fraudulent activities came to light while Cook was on vacation when her supervisor needed access to vendor payment records. Following this discovery, Cook's employment was terminated and law enforcement authorities were informed, leading to charges of multiple counts of wire fraud in federal court.
U.S. District Judge Jacquelin D. Austin oversaw the case proceedings and delivered the sentence of 36 months imprisonment along with an order for restitution totaling $2,276,830.09. It is noted that there is no parole option within the federal judicial system.
The investigation was conducted by the FBI Columbia Field Office with Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Watkins managing the prosecution process.
